Speakers

These days just using the volume knob results in audio distortion (sometimes the other audio channel gets muted/lower in volume etc.) and I have to roll the knob back and forth a few times just to get the audio channels set right...ish.

So, GBK recommended these speakers (Audioengine A2) to me as a replacement:

Which may have been good enough... except that not only are those speakers mostly not in stock on Amazon.com, but they're only available in Finland from one shady-looking store which may or may not be a front for money laundering. So I'm not really willing to take that risk.

So... yeah. Any speaker recommendations? I almost feel like buying another one of those Logitech ones, but if there's something just like them except a bit better in that price range (40-200 money units), I'd rather get them instead.

(Also, the Audioengine ones have the volume knob in the back which is weird to me)

Those look nice as well... and they're also very scarcely available 'round here (available in another shady store OR with a 60-day "maybe it's available, we don't know" waiting period on the most prominent one), it seems.

Yeah, though only when I started looking up Mackies from Finnstores (as in, only then did I even remember of Thomann's existence). Went with the Mackies due to the lower price.

And, after having them for a few days, I do like them quite a lot. However, I have sort of noticed that to my Nikumudang ears anyway, the sound quality isn't that discernibly better than the quality of the Logitech Z313s. Here's hoping these will last far longer than the Z313s did (7 years before any discernible audio faults started kicking in).

You know, I actually thought about this the other day, and came to the conclusion that of all my life choices et al, the only one I actually regret is spending 2000 € on UE4 (and related) stuff because of my grave misinterpretation of this thread.

Despite not being (for the most part) available in Finland (or Thomann.de), those are already veering way too much into the "actual audio equipment" territory, which I simply can't hope to attain in a cramped apartment like this.

They seem good, but also seem to be another one of those "not available in Finland/Europe except for one pair in some weird store" speakers.

Reminds me of how the Sennheiser HD280 Pros were recommended to me, yet the pair I got (in 2005) started breaking down already one month after purchase, whereas the AKG K271 MkIIs that I got in 2009 are still going strong (aside from the left/right channel indicators having dropped off, but that's really a non-issue).

Or how the Samsung monitor I got in early 2008 was already kaputt by Jan 2011 and the Samsung monitor I got as a replacement is still functional (albeit not in daily use since it's the monitor for my secondary computer now).

At any rate, I have nothing to complain about the Mackies (so far), let's see how long they'll last for me.